WHEN Frank Allen read in a magazine that Status Quo had been listed as the hardest working band in the country, with a tally of 64 dates that year, he was unimpressed.

His band, classic Sixties outfit the Searchers, played a whacking 193 gigs that year – and they’re about to embark on a 75-date tour that will take them up to mid-September.

“It’s pretty typical for us,” says Frank, who joined the band in 1964, shortly after they shot to fame. “It’s not gruelling for us, it’s typical Searchers, although admittedly no one else seems to work like that.

“When we go and watch Cliff Richard he’ll ask ‘how come you’ve got the night off? You’re always working so hard’. But we’ve always worked like that.”

The group became household names in the Sixties after scoring hits including Sweets for my Sweets and Needles and Pins.

And the two-hour show will see them reliving all the hits, as well as B-sides, album tracks and lesser-known numbers.

But Frank says the band still get the same buzz when they walk onstage these days as they ever did when they were at the peak of their fame.

“It is different in that in the early days we were just kids,” he explains. “We couldn’t believe where we were, we didn’t have to have an act we just sang through 20 minutes of songs and got screamed at.

“When the screaming stopped we had to learn how to entertain our audiences.”

And there have been plenty of highlights for the group – who are about to fly out to Australia for some dates before beginning their lengthy UK tour.

Not only did they play alongside Cliff Richard at his 30 anniversary celebrations at Wembley Stadium in 1981, but on their first tour to the States in 1964 they shared a bill with megastars Dusty Springfield, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes and Smokey Robinson.

“We couldn’t believe we were going on stage with these kind of people,” says Frank. “Marvin Gaye is an all-time legend.”

And Frank says despite the years of appearing live on stage, he never gets bored of it.

“It never becomes run of the mill,” he explains. “Audiences are different every nights, it’s always your challenge to bring them to the high points and the quiet points and to go off to an ovation – that’s our duty, at the end of the show you want to go to the biggest cheer.”

The Searchers come to the Thameside Theatre in Grays on April 29.

For tickets call 0845 3005264 or visit www.thurrock.gov.uk/theatre